CHAPTER II

FALKLAND AT OXFORD

OR the next four years Oxford was the head-quarters

FOR

of the King and the Court.

Both on strategic and political grounds the choice of Oxford was a wise one. Surrounded on three sides by rivers, with an outer circle of low hills, the city itself was easily defensible. Geographically also it was well placed. Lying just on the line which roughly divided the country of the King from that of the Parliament, it formed, until its surrender on 24th June, 1646, the most Easterly outpost of the King. It was within easy striking distance of the capital, and in touch with the King's principal recruiting grounds in the North, the West Midlands and the SouthWest. But for the enormous advantage given to the Parliamentary forces by the command of the sea, the wisdom of the King's choice would have been even more clearly demonstrated. Even as it was, the immense strategical importance of Oxford is shown conclusively enough by the fact that so many of the battlefields of the first Civil War are within a small radius from the city. Edgehill itself lies just over twenty-five miles to the North; Cropredy a little less; Newbury is twenty-five miles to the South-West; Chalgrove field is ten miles to the South-East; while Oxford itself alone compelled Essex, at the head of the London train-bands, to deviate to the East on his famous march to the relief of Gloucester in September, 1643.